Thought Provoking and Inspirational Readings.

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Akbar was a great Mughal Emperor and Birbal was his witty minister. One day, Akbar was taking a walk in his garden with Birbal.Many crows were flying around. As he observed the birds flying, he thought of asking Birbal a tricky question.He asked, “How many crows are there in our kingdom, Birbal?”Birbal thought for a moment, and then said, “There are ninety-five thousand, four hundred and sixty three crows in your kingdom, Huzoor.”“How do you know that for sure?” the King asked.“You can get them counted, Huzoor.” Birbal said.The Emperor again said, “If there are less than that, then?”Birbal replied immediately, “That means that the rest of them have gone on vacation to some neighbouring kingdoms.”“And if there are more than that, then?” asked Akbar.“Then it means that other crows have come to visit their relatives in our kingdom, Huzoor,” said the witty minister.Akbar was very pleased with the answer that Birbal gave and gave him a suitable reward.

Moral: Even if the question is silly, you can manage the situation by thinking on your feet and giving a witty answer.

A Bat who fell upon the ground and was caught by a Weasel pleaded to be spared his life. The Weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The Bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was set free. Shortly afterwards the Bat again fell to the ground and was caught by another Weasel,whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The Weasel said that he had a special hostility to mice. The Bat assured him that he was not a mouse, but a bat, and thus a second time escaped.

An Ass once found a Lion’s skin which the hunters had left out in the sun to dry.

He put it on and went towards his native village. All fled at his approach, both men and animals, and he was a proud Ass that day. In his delight he lifted up his voice and brayed, but then every one knew him, and his owner came up and gave him a sound cudgelling for the fright he had caused. And shortly afterwards a Fox came up to him and said: “Ah, I knew you by your voice.”

Moral : Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool.

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the goose would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich. ”Just think,” said the man’s wife, “If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster.” ”You’re right,” said her husband, “We wouldn’t have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day.” So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.

A peacock was very unhappy with his ugly voice, and he spent most of his days complaining about it. “It is true that you cannot sing,” said the fox, “But look how beautiful you are!””Oh, but what good is all this beauty,” moaned the dishearten bird, “with such an unpleasant voice!” ”Oh hear,” said the fox, “Each one has it’s special gift. You have such beauty, the nightingale has his song, the owl has his eyes, and the eagle his strength. Even if you had a eloquent voice, you would still complain about another thing.”

Two men were strolling down a forest path when they came across a bear. One man scampered up a tree and escaped the bear’s claws. The other man knew there was nothing he could do, so he dropped to the ground and played dead.

The bear went up to the man and sniffed about his ears. He pawed at him a few times. Thinking the man was dead, the bear walked away.

After the bear left, his friend came down from the tree.
“What did the bear say to you, friend, when he whispered in your ear?” asked his friend. “Oh,” answered his friend, “He just told me that I should consider about traveling with friends who run out on their friends in times of trouble.”

Some boys were playing around a pond when they spotted a group of frogs hopping and swimming about in the water. The boys began to throw rocks at the frogs and even competed against each other as to who could hit the most frogs. Sometimes the rocks hit the frogs so hard that they died. Finally one frog hopped upon a lily pad. “Please stop,” he pleaded, “What may seem just fun to you is death to us.”

A bear came across a log where a swarm of bees had nested to make their honey. As he snooped around, a single little bee flew out of the log to protect the swarm. Knowing that the bear would eat all the honey, the little bee stung him sharply on the nose and flew back into the log.This flew the bear into an angry rage. He swatted at the log with his big claws, determined to destroy the nest of bees inside.This only alerted the bees and quick as a wink, the entire swarm of bees flew out of the log and began to sting the bear from head to heel. The bear saved himself by running to and diving into the nearest pond.

Moral : It is better to bear a single injury in silence than to bring about a thousand by reacting in anger.

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip. When he was back to his palace his feet were very painful because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.Definitely, this would need thousands of cow’s skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.

Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?” The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.

Moral : to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself – your heart; and not the world.